The Free Offer and the Free Gift of Life
Understanding How We Come to See the Bounty of Grace in Christ
Howdy,
We’ve touched on a number of different subjects in these Tuesday devotions over the past five years. It’s hard to believe this started as a brief way to keep our congregation updated as the world turned upside down in March of 2020. I certainly didn’t think at the time I’d still be doing them for this long, but I have found the ritual and the writing a helpful way to spend time meditating on what I am reading and what is happening in our community. My goal is to continue to send these out, along with the Thursday confessional pieces, as long as I still enjoy doing them. I appreciate y’alls patience and willingness to read and commentate when needed. If there is any particular subject you would like me to touch on please feel free to let me know.
In morning worship on the Lord’s Day we started a new mini-series on the Holy Spirit. One of the matters I spoke about was the way He works in and through the preaching of the word to bring men to a knowledge of the truth. This regenerating work is most lovingly described for us in the book of Titus. Paul writes:
He saved us, through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior, that having been justified by His grace we should become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.
This beautiful gift of the righteousness that the Son won at the cross and is applied to us in the washing and renewing has provided for God’s covenant people a new life that they would have never had if the Holy Spirit had not acted in changing out our heart of stone for a heart of flesh. There is nothing more wonderful than considering that this gift is free, both in its warrant and its resting and receiving. There is nothing that we are to, or can, do in order to be prepared to have this salvation as our own. Having heard the invitation it is the Spirit who sweetly brings us to the ownership of the promise of Christ that whosoever is moved to listen to the words, Come all who are weary and heavy laden . . . shall have their repose in their Savior. This free offer is not only well-meant it is open to all men as a class of being. Yet, it is the Holy Spirit who quickens at the direction of the predestinating will of God Almighty.
Here we see why our response to the gospel must always be one of praise and thanksgiving. It is the seeing of the laying of the foundation of the new temple in the days of Ezra that caused men to shout and cry as little children as they considered the bounty of blessings they had received, not just in returning back from the Babylonian exile, but how God had provided for them in gifting and granting the very wood and stone they would need to establish the right worship of Jehovah in the place He had made in Jerusalem. I have said before that what makes a man sing in worship is not the nagging of others, but a sure understanding in his own heart that the words on the page apply to him. Until he recognizes his own salvation in the singing of Under His Wings or He Leadeth Me and has the Holy Spirit dwelling in his soul then it is a fool’s errand to beg and prod. So much of the Christian life must be the positive result of confession of sin and the joy unspeakable which comes from the peace of the washing of the blood of the Lamb on the heart.
This is part of the reason why you can tell a big difference between a church where the Holy Spirit is alive and active versus a church where the words of Acts 19:2, “We have not so much as heard whether there is a Holy Spirit” is an unfortunate reality. Of course one must not confuse loud noises and spastic activity for the presence of the Third Person of the Trinity. The Apostle reminds us that the true testimony as to whether or not the Holy Spirit is working can be found in the quality and goodness of the hearts of men. He says, “Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us.” and “. . . for the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.”. This kind of joy and peace witnesses itself in how the people in a congregation treat one another and support one another in the keeping of the 10 Commandments.
How is this you might say? Ponder another passage that speaks to it: Galatians 6:1-3.
Paul writes:
Brethren, if a man is overtaken in any trespass, you who are spiritual restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness, considering yourself lest you also be tempted. Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ. For if anyone thinks himself to be something, when he is nothing, he deceives himself.
The consideration of one another is born out of a self-understanding that your standing in the house of God is purely by grace. As the Holy Spirit witnesses to the conscience He reminds the Christian that the same mercy shown to them by the Righteous One is to be given to another brother or sister. We do so because we keep in mind our own weakness, but even more than that we are to always be resting in that free gift of grace. For what right do we have to hold sin that Jesus has washed in His blood? To do so is to act in the stead of the Holy Spirit, and we have been told that this is unwise, for it is exactly what the Pharisees do when contending with Christ.
In closing, there is more to be said on this and we’ll expand on it next week. To leave us with some meditative thoughts the more we understand what it means that not only the gospel offer is free from any requirements or preparation but the act of faith itself is a free gift the more we see that everything in the gospel grace and the Christian life is likewise not of our own making or cooperation in the sense that we either encourage God to act, or that we do something to force God’s hand to give us anything. Our plea is only Jesus, His finished work, and His love for us.
Last word:
https://www.reformation21.org/blogs/thomas-boston-the-marrow-and-t.php
Blessings in Christ,
Rev. Benjamin Glaser
Pastor, Bethany ARP Church